Psukhe
by Mell8
Summary: Psukhe... life, breath, soul. He wanted complete mind control. Nothing less would suffice. DG Slight AU, Post HBP.
1. Chapter 1

Psukhe

Chapter One

By Mell8

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_"The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing... It is true, however, that those who have mastered Legilimency are able, under certain conditions, to delve into the minds of their victims and to interpret their findings correctly."_

Draco Malfoy shook his head free of his old teacher's voice and focused. The Muggle at his feet was bound, gagged, and blindfolded but his mind was wide-open to Draco's careful prodding.

Draco rifled through thoughts of childhood, a wife and kids, work, an affair; all the memories and thoughts of the Muggle were pulled out and poked by Draco's ungentle hand.

"Damn it!" Malfoy swore and shoved himself from the Muggle mind. "I've mastered Occlumency and Legilimency. I can slip into a person's mind and see anything, no matter how well hidden, and I'm better than Snape ever was, maybe I'm even better than the Dark Lord is." He paced across the floor, occasionally kicking the Muggle with the toe of his dragon-hide boots. "But I still can't do it!"

He threw himself into a rickety chair and ran a hand through his blond hair.

"Again then," he sighed and lifted his wand.

"Imperio, Diffindo." The ropes fell away as the severing charm worked and the Muggle stood under the Imperius Curse as Draco directed him.

"Now, don't move," Draco ordered coldly. He focused his thoughts and slid into the Muggle mind.

The Muggle's mind was blank, calm, and completely serene. Draco could sense what the Muggle was feeling as he floated around. This was nothing new as he had already extensively studied the effects of the Imperius Curse on the mind.

Draco slid in deeper, wary of the spell's effects on his own mind, and searched around. It had to be here, the reason the Imperius Curse was able to take over so easily. There had to be something in the mind that the Curse hit, something that he could affect with Legilimency so he could manipulate the mind without the need for breakable spells.

Potter had proven years ago in Professor Moody's Defense Against the Dark Arts class that he could throw off the Imperius Curse. Potter had then proven that Voldemort could enter his mind and send messages that influenced the idiot boy's decisions a year later.

But Voldemort had only been able to _influence_ Potter. Only by possessing Potter could he control the scarred boy completely, and Potter had thrown that off quickly enough.

No, what Draco was looking for was something stronger, deeper, and much more powerful. He wanted to be able to go into a person's mind, and, once he bypassed the meager defenses, could make them do whatever he wished.

He wanted complete mind control. Nothing less would suffice.

He slid out of the Muggle's mind as the door to his study opened.

"Another failure?" she asked softly as she set down a tray of tea and cookies.

He groaned and nodded. "I just can't find what makes the Curse work. If I could figure out exactly what functions of thinking it influenced I could go in there with only Legilimency and get the same effect. But I can't figure it out!"

She poured him a cup of tea and handed him a chocolate chip cookie, her favorite flavor but he wasn't complaining.

"I've had a thought," she said slowly around a large bite of cookie. She swallowed and continued. "I don't know if you'll like it but," she took a deep breath. "Muggles have a type of technology that takes moving pictures of the brain. I was thinking that if you took a Muggle under the Curse and put him in that machine, you could see what parts of the brain are being affected. The Muggles can tell you what part of the brain controls what body functions. We match up the part affected by the Curse with its functions and you can focus your Legilimency on that."

Draco slowly put down his cup as her idea formed and expanded. "That could work," he said slowly. His cookie lay forgotten as he stood and began to pace.

"We would need to break into a Muggle hospital and force the doctors to use the machines for us," she said as she stood. She put a gentle hand on his arm to stop his pacing. "But that would be easy enough with magic."

"You're brilliant," he breathed and bent down to capture her lips with his.

She kissed back eagerly, her hands sliding up his chest to grip his shoulders. His hands gently slid up her hips and waist to settle on her breasts. She gasped into his mouth as he squeezed and rolled the small mounds in his hands and tweaked a hardening point between two fingers.

Clothes were discarded and she was soon purring underneath him in what had become a familiar dance over the past few years.

III

"Look!" Draco said excitedly to her. "Before I put the Curse on the Muggle there were a lot of lights moving around on the picture of his brain." He gestured to the MRI neural-imaging machine and the picture of the brain a doctor was manipulating. "Now all that color is just concentrated on that one point."

"My diagnosis would be that the outlying functions of the patient's brain have died. Only that one point seems to be working… That's the Medulla Oblongata," the doctor said stiffly as he tapped the lit part of the computer screen with a pudgy finger. "It controls the heartbeat and breathing, the involuntary functions of the body."

"That's the stuff that we can't change with the Curse," she said with a nod. "It's near impossible to make someone stop their own heart when they're under the influence of the Curse. Draco, try making him move a finger or something."

They both gasped as a flash of light moved from the Medulla Oblongata to another section of the brain and then down to the body.

"That went to the Frontal Lobe of the Cerebrum, voluntary movement," the doctor added at their blank looks. "Then it went down the Spinal Cord, probably all the way down to the finger. I've never seen anything like this!"

"And you won't remember this when we leave either," she said under her breath.

Draco shot her a warning look before sitting gracefully down in a chair. "I'm going in," he said to her as he closed his eyes. "Keep a watch on the machines and make sure none of the Muggles do anything dodgy."

"Right," she said with a nod. "Good luck, Draco."

He smirked once before slipping away into the Muggle's mind. The serene blankness was the same as usual and at first Draco was unable to figure out where to go. Then he thought about the heartbeat. Involuntary functions, not thoughts, were what gave the human mind some control even with the Curse in place. He needed to find that.

He pushed his way through the surface thoughts and through the maze of this Muggle's mind with practiced ease. He had been in these deep thoughts before so it was deceptively effortless to go past them again.

But all he found were the thoughts the Muggle wasn't even aware ran through his mind. There was nothing about the heartbeat or breathing.

He growled and opened his eyes to see her dancing excitedly.

"What?" he snarled testily.

"Look, doctor play that back again, look Draco." She pointed to the computer screen the doctor was fiddling with. "This is what happened when you went in!"

A bright white light flashed in the brain and began traveling around in a circle in just one small spot.

"That's the, what did you call it doctor?" she asked excitedly.

"Frontal Lobe of the Cerebrum," the doctor answered blankly. It looked like she had Imperioused him to keep him under control. "For reasoning, emotions, and voluntary movement."

"But you were the only light flashing though there," she continued. "None of the light from the Medulla Oblongata moved."

"I know," he hissed. "I couldn't figure out how to enter that part of the brain. It seems that I'm stuck in one small part."

"But that's it Draco! You're mentally in the brain already, but my guess is you're only going through his thoughts, the reasoning part of the Frontal Lobe of the Cerebrum."

"Yes," he sighed. "That's what Legilimency does. I'm trying to change it, make it more powerful so I can control minds like I do with the Curse."

"Exactly, Draco," she breathed. "You're trying to change it! That means that you can't go into the mind the same way, not if you want to get different results."

"Of course!" Draco whispered. He kissed her quickly. "I usually just slide into the mind and meld with the surface thoughts before delving deeper. I need to do something different."

"What else is there besides the surface thoughts that you can make initial contact with?" she asked with a smile.

"I'm not sure. Let's go find out." He closed his eyes and was gone.

The surface thoughts were immediately apparent and he almost fell into the same usual path of entering them, but was able to hold himself back at the last minute. What else was there for him to find? He brushed around the thoughts and sensed something else. It wasn't thoughts or anything he could accurately describe with words, but it was tangible and strong. He explored around and quickly realized that while this was not the Medulla Oblongata, it was a very interesting part to investigate. If he pressed like this he felt the body respond and the muscles would twitch when he directed them.

It would take more practice to perfect the technique but he had learned how to make a person's body move against their will. It still wasn't the level of mind control he was looking for, but it was a large step in the right direction.

"Draco! We've got to go. The Ministry's detected our magic use in front of Muggles and are coming here."

Draco woke himself and shook his head to focus. "Their memories?" he asked.

"Already modified. Do you want to bring along your pet?" she asked with a small gesture towards his favorite experiment lying under the MRI.

"Yes," he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room. The second his finger touched his experiment they Disparated.

III

Ginny Weasley wandered downstairs and into the kitchen at nearly one o'clock in the afternoon. Her long red hair was mussed with sleep and her brown eyes were only open enough to keep her from running into a wall or falling down the stairs. She had gotten home late and had decided to sleep in for once, but it was clear that she needed much more sleep before she was fully awake.

"Ginny, you're finally out of bed!" Molly stood up from the table where she was nursing a cup of tea and bustled over to the counter. She pulled out food she had left under warming spells and set out a small breakfast for her daughter.

"Good morning, Mum," Ginny said with a smile.

"It's afternoon, Ginny," Molly said with a reproving smile as she poured her youngest child a glass of juice. "And you just missed a letter from Harry, Hermione and Ron. Their search is going successfully and they expect to be stopping home for a visit sometime within the next week!" Molly sat across from her daughter and pulled over her cup of tea. She eyed Ginny speculatively as she mentioned Harry's name, no doubt expecting a response or at least a small blush, but Ginny disappointed her.

Molly did not know what had happened with Ginny and Harry over the past year, but when her baby girl had returned from her sixth year at Hogwarts she did not seem to hold any feelings for Harry. It disappointed Molly immensely as she had always expected Harry to enter the family through marriage with Ginny, but if he did not make Ginny happy then Molly could forget about that small dream. Still, it would be nice to know what had made her daughter change her mind about the messy-haired boy.

Ginny ate slowly and ignored the side ways looks from her mother. She had been getting them ever since June when she had come home from school and had brushed past Harry without even a hello.

Truthfully, she had never felt anything beyond mild annoyance towards Harry Potter. Kissing him after the Quidditch match in her fifth year had been a mistake and she had thought to rectify it, but it was too late. _He_ had already heard about her spit-swap with Potter and had sent her away.

Ginny had continued to be with Harry, both because her brother seemed pleased with the arrangement and because it annoyed Him even more. She had hated herself for letting Harry touch her and for letting herself believe that Harry could save her from Him. But then Harry had abandoned her and He had come back. She soon realized that she didn't want to be saved from Him; she loved Him and wanted to be with Him forever.

Of course it had taken a lot of apologies on her part for even thinking of touching Harry and He had to grovel at her feet and promise her the moon for daring to abandon her, but now they were together and she could not be happier.

There was still the small matter of her mum not knowing, but that would soon be rectified when Ginny got on the train for school and disappeared en-route. There was absolutely no way she would be going back to school, not when he had already taught her all the magic she needed to know. No, right now Ginny needed to be at his side and there was only one more month until she turned seventeen and would be considered "of age" in the Wizarding World.

"Have you been listening to me at all, Ginny?"

"Sorry, Mum," Ginny managed to look sheepish. "I guess I'm still asleep," she added when her mother glared.

"As I've been saying, it's been quite a few months since they've come home so I expect this house to be spotless. Now, Hermione will be staying in your room so I want it to be cleaned. Also, I think Ron's room has gotten a bit dusty. You'll need to air it out and spray some anti-dust potion. Oh, there's so much to do!" Molly clapped her hands together excitedly.

Ginny sighed and stood to take her empty plate to the sink. "I'd better get started if I want to be done by lunch," she said as she headed to the stairs. "Mum, I've got plans to meet a friend after lunch but I should be back before dinner."

"But Ginny, you were out with a friend till late last night. I worry for you, you know. It's dangerous with You-Know-Who lurking around and," she lowered her voice, "there was an article in the paper this morning about an attack on a Muggle hospital. My guess is that the war will begin to escalate soon so be careful."

"I'm always careful, Mum. Honest, I know that there are Death Eaters and I can recognize the warning signs so I can get out in time." Ginny walked up the stairs, effectively ending any response from her mother, and entered her pigsty of a room.

"So," she muttered to herself. "I'm supposed to meet him in two hours. I can spend an hour in this room and a half hour in Ron's room and that'll give me a little time to clean myself up before I go." Ginny sighed and bent down to pick up the first of many dirty shirts that needed to go into the laundry hamper.

III

The fact that she was running late was no surprise but it still annoyed Draco immensely. It was a common occurrence for him to be sitting alone in the corner booth in the back of this grimy pub in Knockturn Alley, sometimes for a half an hour, waiting for her to arrive.

"Sorry I'm late," she smiled down at him and slid into the booth across from him. "My Mum's got me on cleaning duty because the trio are planning on coming home for a quick visit."

"I'm guessing that means that you won't be able to sneak away to meet with me when they come home." Draco signaled the barman for a drink for his lady.

Ginny nodded and sighed, "I'm sorry Draco. I know how close you are to the answer and I want to be there every step of the way, but my mother is not going to let me go off to "meet with a friend" while Harry, Ron, and Hermione are home." She took the Fire-Whiskey from the bartender and stared into the amber depths.

"Gin, I know you want to be there when I finally figure it out, Hell, I want you to be there too, but I can't stop my experimenting when I'm so close." Draco ran a hand through his hair and watched her take a sip of whiskey.

Ginny sighed and put her glass back on the table a bit harder than was necessary. "Whatever," she pulled out a small notebook from her pocket and handed it over. "I forgot to give you this last night and now that my Mum is on a cleaning rampage I didn't want to leave anything lying about for her to find."

Draco flipped through the notebook and stopped at the picture of a human brain. "What's this?" He pointed to two small Xs that marked two spots on the brain.

"This first X is the Frontal Lobe of the Cerebrum. It's where you usually enter the mind and read thoughts. This second X is the new place you went last night. The doctor called it the Cerebellum and said that it controlled balance, posture, movement, and muscle coordination." She leaned back into the back of the bench and watched him think for a second before continuing.

"The best part," Ginny smiled and pulled the notebook her way, "was that while you were in the Cerebellum, you were also in the Frontal Lobe at the same time."

"How does that work?" Draco asked with a lifted eyebrow.

Ginny took a fortifying sip of whiskey before continuing. "At first you were just in the Cerebellum but when you began to expand your experimenting the light that represented you on the computer screen expanded as well. What were you trying to do?"

Draco shrugged. "I wasn't trying to do anything really, but I did find that if I, how do I explain this, ummm—flexed my mind in a certain way—I could get the Muggle to move the way I wanted him to."

She bounced excitedly in her seat. "That's it! See, the Cerebellum controls movement and muscle coordination and the Frontal Lobe controls voluntary movement. They're connected and have to be manipulated simultaneously to get the body to move. Normally the brain will do that automatically. My guess is that the already existing connection between the two separate parts helped to guide you into making him move."

Draco looked thoughtful for a moment. "So what you're saying is that once I perfect this, I can make someone move against their will."

She nodded. "Yeah, their legs will be moving one way while their mind will be screaming "what the hell?" and will probably try to fight you for control."

"But if I figure out how to control their minds…" Draco smirked.

"Then there won't be any fighting at all!" Ginny finished with a smile. "We're so close!"

"And once I figure out how to do this I can teach you." Draco raised his glass and clicked it against hers in a toast.

"All I've got to do is get better at Legilimency," she shrugged.

"You can block me out most of the time with your Occlumency," Draco said with a soft smile. "That's an excellent achievement."

"I know," she smiled. "But you're so much stronger that you can manipulate other parts of the brain. I can barely find my way through the maze of thoughts without getting lost."

"So when you come to live with me in September we can practice." Draco leaned over the table and pecked her on the lips. "Come home with me. I can show you how to make a Muggle dance."

She giggled. "I have to be home by six, but until then I'm all yours."

III

This dream was a memory from Ginny's fourth year at Hogwarts, she knew that, but it still felt so real, as if she were back in the library in truth instead of sleeping soundly in her bed at the Burrow.

Ginny bent over her potions homework with an angry snarl. She flipped her long red hair over her shoulder and swore again.

Snape had told her to add a foot to her three foot homework assignment because her hair had touched the potion they were working on in class. While Ginny was glad that she hadn't received a detention too, Snape didn't have to give her an entire foot. There was only so much she could write about newts' eyes and their properties in potion making.

Ginny looked around the library hoping to find Hermione or someone else she could beg for help, but instead found that the library was deserted.

With a gasp Ginny glanced down at her watch. It was exactly curfew. If she hurried she ought to be able to get back to Gryffindor tower without being caught. Ginny rushed to stuff her schoolbooks into her bag and was just hurrying past the last table when something shiny caught her eye.

She almost kept walking, but stopped and went over to it instead. She didn't want someone's pet to eat whatever it was and get sick.

She found a silver, heart-shaped locket lying innocently on the table and picked it up. With careful fingers she popped it open and couldn't keep the snarl off her face. The locket must belong to some girl in Slytherin because inside was Draco Malfoy's picture smirking haughtily up at her. Ginny angrily poked his face with a stiff finger and went to throw the locket in the rubbish bin.

There was a hard pull on her navel and she screamed as a Portkey pulled her from the library.

"It works!"

The first thing she heard when her feet touched solid ground was a voice crowing in happiness.

Ginny stared dumbly down at the locket before looking up to see a Slytherin colored dorm. At least she was still in Hogwarts.

"What was that?" she whispered as she slowly turned to face the other occupant of the room.

Draco Malfoy's blond hair was bent over a piece of parchment he was scribbling notes on. He didn't look up from his notes as he pulled over another parchment and began to scribble on that one too.

"It's a one-shot Portkey. I made it myself. It'll take you to the person in the picture when you touch it. The best part is that it never loses its power. If I were to go into the other room and you were to touch the picture again you would be transported into the other room with me."

He finally turned around to look at her and she saw that his wand was pointed at her.

"Now, sorry but I'm afraid I'll be erasing your memory now," he said with a cold smirk. "Hand over the locket please."

"If you were just going to erase my memory why did you tell me what the locket does?" Ginny asked with wide eyes. She slowly held out the hand holding the locket but did not release it into his waiting hand.

He sighed. "I needed to tell someone about my success. Now let go of the locket!"

"This is a brilliant invention," Ginny said quickly but her wide eyes told them both that she had not meant to say that. She blushed and let go of the locket.

Malfoy caught it but his eyes were still focused on her face.

"Do you really think so?" he asked with a gasp. "Then would you be willing to tell me if there are any kinks in this invention?" He rushed on, his excitement getting the better of his mouth. "Because I can't test it myself so there might be a way for it to fail that I haven't found yet."

Ginny couldn't help laughing at the eagerness this boy felt and held up her hands to stop his tirade.

"Of course I'll help you," she said between giggles, "but only if you promise not to erase my memory."

She watched as Malfoy checked himself and noticed just whom he was talking to. The sneer slid into place and his lip curled in disgust.

"As if I would ever need the help of a dirt poor, Mudblood loving, Weasley." His wand pointed right at her chest and Ginny could see the spell on his lips.

"Nonsense," she waved her hand in the air as if dismissing something. Now that she had seen Draco Malfoy unguarded and human she would not be fooled by his hard façade. "I did notice something that definitely needs to be fixed. When I first touched the picture I had the time to pull my hand away and if I wished I could have let go of the locket entirely. There was too much of a time lapse between when I activated the Portkey and when it worked."

The thoughtful Malfoy was back and his wand was forgotten on a side table as he pulled some tools off his desk and began to tinker with the inside of the locket. He pulled over an entire sheaf of parchment and began perusing pages of notes and calculations.

"You're right," he gasped as Ginny finally decided that it would be okay if she took a seat across from Malfoy. "There is a time lapse. I don't believe I didn't see that before." He opened up the inside of the locket and poked and prodded it excitedly.

After nearly ten minutes he snapped the locket closed and handed it to her. "I'm going to go into the other room. When I say go, you touch the picture." He stood but she stopped him with a careful hand.

"No memory charms?" she asked softly and looked meaningfully down at the locket clutched in her hand.

He sighed but nodded. "As long as you don't tell anyone Weasley."

Ginny waited for his signal before touching the photograph. The effect this time was instantaneous. Ginny was flung onto Malfoy and couldn't keep herself from laughing with him at their success.

Days passed in a jumble of fast moving images that were quickly forgotten by Ginny's dreaming mind. Finally her mind focused in on another memory of a few weeks before the end of term her fourth year.

"Shouldn't you be studying for O.W.L.'s?" Ginny said as she lay on Draco's bed. Draco looked up from the book he was busy charming to open itself to the page or chapter he specified with a snort.

"Study for those easy tests?" he laughed. "My father made sure I had all the material for my O.W.L.'s and N.E.W.T.'s memorized and perfected by my second year at Hogwarts. I've been purposefully getting answers wrong on my tests for years because I don't want to be top of the class. Besides, I prefer to experiment with stuff like this than study. Come over here and hold this."

"Only if you explain what the Hell you're doing," Ginny answered as she levered herself off the bed. "I'm always helping you with various experiments but you never teach me how you do these amazing things."

"Then come on over here and I'll teach you how to make a book follow your every wish," he laughed and she couldn't help smiling happily back.

"We can still do this next year right?" Ginny asked after a while of learning about how mathematical calculations could be melded with magic.

"If you want to," Draco said with a shy smile that Ginny would never have expected a Malfoy to be capable of. Her family had always told her how terrible the Malfoy's were and her first year and the Chamber of Secrets had cemented that. But now she was learning that while Draco did have his rough spots he could be just as nice a person as anyone else Ginny knew.

"Then yes, I will definitely come," she answered with a smile.

There had been a number of times over the past few months when Ron had nearly caught her sneaking off to work with Draco. Luckily Ron and his two friends were too busy figuring out what to do with Umbridge to really take notice of her absences.

"I wish you didn't follow Professor Umbridge around like a starving dog asking for treats," Ginny muttered. "It makes it difficult to believe that you're really a nice person under all that hatred and bigotry."

He groaned. "I don't have a choice in the matter. My father said to follow Umbridge's orders and until I'm seventeen and of legal age I have to do what he says. Besides, I've never hurt you with my Inquisitorial Squad status."

"I suppose," Ginny sighed. "I just don't like seeing you being so awful."

He shifted closer to her to help point out a mistake she had made. "Don't forget to carry the two. What would you prefer to see me do then?"

She looked up and caught his grey eyes with her own brown ones. "You can be such a nice person. I don't understand why you hide that."

"Because you're the only person I've ever met who deserves to meet the real me," he whispered and glanced quickly down at her lips before refocusing on her eyes.

She looked surprised and then pleased and when he slowly bent his head forward she did not pull away. Their lips met with mind-numbing intensity.

The dream faded and Ginny floated for a while in a blank dream space that was actually rather nice. Time passed and Ginny began to realize that dawn was fast approaching as was her birthday and the day that the trio would be coming home. She fought to wake but was taken back into her memories one last time.

"You're supposed to WHAT?"

"You did WHAT?"

Their screeches were simultaneous and grating with shock and horror.

"Yes, I kissed Harry, but it was an accident. You're telling me that I've been helping you fix the vanishing cabinets all year because you want to kill Dumbledore! I think what you've done is much worse."

"Not from my perspective," Draco snarled. "I had sex with you, I loved you, and this is how you repay me!"

She sobbed. "I didn't mean to, you have to listen, Draco!" But he turned his head away from her and ignored her pleas.

Only when she had closed the door behind her did he allow himself to cry.

The alarm ringing finally woke Ginny from her dreams and her mother was soon calling up the staircase to tell Ginny that breakfast was ready.

When she got downstairs Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting at the table digging into bacon and eggs. They looked up long enough to nod a welcome to Ginny before burying themselves in their food again.

"At least Hermione is chewing before she swallows," Ginny sneered to herself before putting on a smile and taking her seat at the table.

"Isn't it wonderful!" Molly smiled happily as she served her daughter. "They came in last night."

"Yes, that's wonderful," Ginny said, but even though her voice sounded enthusiastic her head was bent low over her plate so her expression would stay hidden.

Molly took no notice of her daughter. "Ginny, your presents are in the living room. Would you like to open them now?"

"Okay, Mum." Ginny pushed aside the remains of her breakfast and went to get her presents.

The book from Hermione, the Quidditch gloves from Ron, and the necklace from Harry all received a solemn "thank you" from Ginny. The beautiful new set of dress robes from her parents earned Molly a hug and a smile.

But it was the small package from one of Ginny's friends that finally got a big reaction. It was a small box with holes cut in it so Molly had a good idea what Ginny had gotten.

Ginny opened the card on the top and smiled. "For September, when Dragon and Ginger meet again."

Ginny squealed happily and opened the box to find a tiny sleeping white kitten and a picture of an equally tiny red kitten. Around the white kitten's neck was a silver locket and when Ginny carefully popped it open Molly could see a miniature photograph of the red kitten.

"Who are Dragon and Ginger?" Molly asked as Ginny carefully picked up the tiny kitten.

"This is Dragon," Ginny said as she smoothed down the white fur on her kitten's back. "The red cat, Ginger, belongs to a friend. It means that we'll bring our cats together in September."

Molly smiled. Finally she had her answer to why Ginny no longer loved Harry. Her baby girl had found another boy to love. Molly watched happily as Ginny gathered up her gifts and went upstairs.

Days passed and Ginny was only able to meet up with Draco one last time before September first rolled around. She had used the excuse of going to Diagon Alley to buy schoolbooks to meet with Draco at the usual spot down Knockturn Alley.

Ginny was saddened to hear that he had been unable to make any further progress over the past few weeks but at the same time was secretly glad because that meant she hadn't missed anything important.

"Now Ginny, I want to get a letter from you every week." Molly Weasley hugged her daughter while Arthur lifted her trunk onto the train.

The whistle blew loudly and the conductor called for the last stragglers to get onto the train. Ginny smiled at her Mum, hugged her father and climbed aboard.

"Remember to write, Ginny!" Molly called after the slowly moving train. Ginny waved out the window but did not answer. She didn't want to promise something that she could not do.

"Three hours," Ginny whispered as she hoisted Dragon's cage onto her hip. "I only have to wait three hours before leaving this horrid place."

It wasn't hard to find an empty compartment as even fewer students had returned this year than last year.

She pulled Dragon out and settled him on her lap with a small sigh. "You know," she said as she stroked his soft ears, "for a while I thought that I would be stuck with Harry for the rest of my life." The cat purred and she laughed and stroked his ears again.

"I was going out with Harry and Draco didn't like that even though he told me to go out with other people to help keep our relationship a secret." Ginny smiled sadly down at her kitten, wondering why she was even telling him this but feeling the need to continue anyway.

"Then when Draco's plan to kill Dumbledore and to use the vanishing cabinets to bring Death Eaters into the school was successful I thought that I would never see him again. He would be off with the Death Eaters and I would be back with the Order of the Phoenix waiting for Harry to end the war and to hear that Draco had been sent to Azkaban."

The cat kneaded its claws into Ginny's thigh and she hissed in pain. The kitten circled twice on her lap before settling down again with his tail covering his eyes.

"Fine," Ginny grumped. "Go to sleep. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop talking. I've still got two and a half hours to wait."

She brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes and continued.

"Do you know what Draco did, Dragon?" She fluffed the kitten's tail and giggled when he lazily slashed a claw in her direction. "He basically went and told Voldemort to fuck off then used one of his one-shot Portkeys to catapult himself into my lap; though where he got my picture is beyond me. He explained about the threat on his mother and I explained that the entire fiasco with Harry was an accident and it was like our relationship had not been on hiatus for a couple of months. I helped Draco go into hiding and now I'm going to join him."

Ginny smiled happily and leaned back in her seat.

"And then we'll learn how to control minds and take over the world. Gods I love him!"

A couple of hours later Ginny gathered her belongings, gently popped open the locket around Dragon's neck, and touched the picture inside.

The Portkey dropped her into Draco's lap and he let his red kitten, Ginger, run off so he could gather her into his arms and kiss her hello.

III

"What do you mean, "Ginny never made it to school"? I saw her get on the train myself!" Molly Weasley sank into a kitchen chair and angrily wiped the tears from her eyes before they could fall.

"That's what I don't understand, Molly. I had Aurors and Order members running regular sweeps of the train and it's warded against Apparition. I don't understand how your daughter could have disappeared." Minerva McGonagall's head floated in the kitchen fire. A hand appeared in the flames to rub a tired wrinkle from the aging Headmistress's face before disappearing again.

"Could someone have gotten onto the train without the guards being aware?" Molly asked through another repressed sob.

"Impossible, Molly. I've already checked and there is no way that someone got onto the train that could have taken your daughter. Will you check your clock?"

Molly gasped and shot up from her chair. "Of course," Molly hiccupped as she rushed from the room. She came back to the kitchen over ten minutes later with a bewildered look on her face. "Minerva, the clock says that Ginny is home but I've just searched the entire building and she isn't anywhere to be found."

"Could the clock be malfunctioning?" McGonagall asked gently.

"No, no. That's not possible." A fresh batch of tears formed and began to drip down her cheeks.

"Then Ginny must be somewhere that she feels is home. Listen, Molly. You keep watch on your clock. I believe that Ginny is safe as long as her clock hand points to home or other safe descriptions."

"Can you really think that?" Molly gently put the clock down on the table and futilely wiped at her eyes again.

"You said it yourself, the clock cannot be wrong. Ginny is somewhere that she feels safe and at home and while that certainly does not mean that we will not search for her, it does mean that she is okay."

Molly nodded and pulled out a handkerchief to mop at her face with. "Thank you, Minerva."

"You're welcome, Molly. Keep strong for Harry. Ginny will be back before you know it."

III

A.N.

The quote at the beginning is taken directly from the mouth of Severus Snape from when he was teaching Harry Occlumency in Order of the Phoenix.

All knowledge of the brain is from Google so blame them if I got anything wrong.

Thanks for reading!

Mell8


	2. Chapter 2

Psukhe

Chapter Two

By Mell8

--

"_A Horcrux is the word used for an object in which a person has concealed part of their soul…Well, you split your soul, you see and hide part of it in an object outside the body. Then, even if one's body is attacked or destroyed, one cannot die, for part of the soul remains earthbound and undamaged…Killing rips the soul apart." _

"_If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. He didn't realize that love as powerful as your mother's for you leaves its own mark. Not a scar, no visible sign…to have been loved so deeply, even though the person who loved us is gone, will give us some protection forever. It is in your very skin." _

"_There is a room in the Department of Mysteries that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you." _

"Are you sure we're in the right place Harry?" Hermione looked around nervously and then jogged to catch up to Harry and Ron. "We could get mugged or shot at!" she said in a high, frightened voice as they passed another broken down building.

A destitute man stumbled onto the cracked pavement in front of them and a long, clearly used needle clacked out of his hand. He laid where he fell and only his drunken groans showed that he was still alive.

Hermione sniffed and walked a large circle around the man while Ron looked on with wide eyes.

"What's with him, Harry?" Ron asked as he followed Hermione in her wide circle.

Harry sighed. "First, yes we are in the right place because I see the remains of the orphanage up ahead. Second, that man is addicted to drugs and probably just overdosed. There isn't anything we can do for him. Come on, wands out." Harry forced his voice to be unemotional and strict. They had learned over the past year of searching for Horcruxes that they couldn't help everyone. Sometimes all they could do was callously walk past.

Harry comforted himself by thinking that in the long run, getting rid of Voldemort would save even more people from death and pain. Taking extra time to help the dying man in the road could give the Death Eaters the extra second they needed to mobilize and attack; or the man in the street was a Death Eater in disguise, waiting for Harry to bend down to see if he was okay before trying to kill him. Both had happened over the past year, once while they had been searching down Knockturn Alley for the store Riddle used to work in. They had only survived that mistake because Tonks and Lupin had been shadowing them.

"But Harry, a Muggle could see!" Hermione gasped. Her hand was on her wand in her pocket and her eyes constantly darted around to check for danger.

Harry sighed again. "Look around you Hermione. We're in the worst part of London. Everyone who lives here is either on drugs, is an alcoholic, or is a criminal. The first two won't notice anything odd about us holding a piece of wood in our hands and we need our wands to protect us from the last. Besides, I would prefer to be safe than sorry. Remember what happened last time?"

Ron shuddered. "It's a good thing you're so quick with shielding spells, Harry. Otherwise that girl would have hurled all over us!"

Harry laughed and led them through a set of rusted iron gates into a weed-choked courtyard.

His throat closed for a second as he saw a memory of Dumbledore wearing a plum colored velvet suit walking up the few steps to the front doors.

Harry shook his head and pushed open the rotted main doors. "This is the orphanage Dumbledore showed me two years ago in his pensive. Tom Riddle grew up here and I think he would feel that it is an important enough place to hold one of his Horcruxes."

Another destitute man stumbled through a side door. He walked like he had three left feet but was otherwise staying upright.

"Ya' going up ta de haunted floor?" he asked and took a long swig from a bottle covered by a paper bag.

"Haunted floor?" Ron asked in a slightly more high-pitched voice than usual.

"Yeah," the man tipped way over to the left but managed to right himself. He laughed with a hard wheeze and pointed upwards. "Anyone tha' goes up, don'na come back down."

"See," Harry said softly. "I told you we're at the right place." He turned to the man. "Yes, that's where we're going. We heard about the haunting and are trying to exorcize it." But the man had found a spot of the wall to speak with and was ignoring Harry.

He shrugged and led his friends up the stairs.

"Do you know where in this building the Horcrux is?" Hermione asked softly. "Did Dumbledore show you?"

"He didn't specifically point out where Voldemort would hide a Horcrux but I have a good idea where it is." Harry led them up to the second landing and into the first door down the long corridor, Tom Riddle's room.

Inside the room were the warped remains of an old bed and a wardrobe that was in only slightly better shape than the bed.

"I think the Horcrux is inside the wardrobe. In the memory Dumbledore showed me, Riddle had a box on the top shelf that held all the things he had stolen from the other orphans. Hermione, will you scan the room?"

She nodded and whipped her wand around in a complicated maneuver that made everything magical on all three of them glow. Aside from them, only the wardrobe gave off the glow.

Harry nodded and slowly strode forward, wand out front and ready. He poked the wardrobe with his wand and it rattled in a familiar ominous way.

"That sounds like a boggart…" Ron ventured. "Like from Lupin's class third year."

"It does," Hermione nodded and Ron looked impressed with himself for a second before returning his concentration to Harry.

"I'm going to open it," Harry said as he carefully reached out. He clasped the handles and nothing happened. Harry gave a gentle yank on the door and again nothing happened.

"Is it locked?" Hermione asked.

Harry nodded and backed towards his friends. "Be careful, I'm going to open it from here." He waved his wand. "Alohomora!"

The doors flew open and a Dementor glided into the room. The place immediately became cold and Harry could hear his mother's screaming in the back of his mind.

Harry pulled in a quick, chilled breath and thought of something funny. "Riddikulus," he yelled. There was a loud snapping sound and the boggart stumbled backwards for a second before righting itself. The screaming in his ears increased and it was Harry's turn to stumble.

"It figures that Voldemort would have a super boggart guarding his soul," Ron grumbled and rubbed his head. His breathing was fast and his face was whiter than Hermione's but his bad memories were not taking control. "Why did your boggart have to be a Dementor, Harry?"

"All together then?" Harry said as he backed into his friends. They nodded and pointed their wands along with Harry's at the boggart. "One, two, THREE!"

"Riddikulus!"

The boggart was blasted back and disappeared in a puff of foul colored smoke. Harry slowly moved forward and waited impatiently for the next monster to jump out of the wardrobe.

"It's not like Voldemort to only have one beastie guarding and no spells." Hermione whipped her wand around the room again and again only the trio and the wardrobe glowed.

Harry stepped up to the open wardrobe and sucked in a harsh breath. Inside was a swirling, opaque black mass that prevented him from seeing further into the depths of the wardrobe.

"What do you think it is?" Ron asked from over Harry's shoulder.

"I'm not sure," Harry answered slowly. "Hermione?"

Hermione dropped her heavy backpack onto the floor and began to dig through it. "I borrowed some books from the Restricted Section last time we stopped at Hogwarts. I think one of them will have some information on this spell." She quickly flipped through two books and discarded them into a growing pile at her side. By the fifth book Ron was tapping his toe in impatience and Harry was ready to try his own, probably disastrous, theories on the black mass. Hermione finally found a short reference in the seventh book she skimmed though.

"Look at this!" She held out the small passage excitedly for the boys to look at.

Harry skimmed it and turned to glare at the black mass. "So it's sort of like the mist I went through in the maze at the Tri-wizard tournament. It made everything seem upside-down when I stepped though it and when I took another step the world righted itself."

"I suppose it could be like that…" Hermione hedged. "Or it could just cut off whatever body part you push through it."

"There's only one way to find out!" Ron snatched up a random book from the floor and pushed half of it through the black vortex. He slowly pulled it back out and turned to smile at an incensed Hermione.

"See," Ron said, holding up the untarnished book. "It's fine."

He dropped the book onto the floor and gaped with the other two when it promptly exploded and left a book sized hole in the floor.

"Right then," Ron said as he slowly backed away from the hole and the wardrobe. "I'm not putting my hand in there!"

Hermione sighed. "You won't have to! As I was trying to say earlier before you destroyed a perfectly good book, I should be able to disable it the same way that mist was disabled when the maze was taken down after the tournament. I asked Professor Flitwick about it." She pulled out her wand and resolutely walked over to the wardrobe.

"When did you have the time to do that?" Ron gaped and held out a hand to stop his girlfriend from walking any closer to the swirling vortex of death.

"When Harry was recovering in the hospital wing," Hermione snapped and pulled away from Ron. "Now with the mist you had to say an incantation and move your wand in the same direction as the mist. I think that if I say a slightly darker incantation and follow the swirls with my wand it should dissipate."

"And if it doesn't you'll be blown to smithereens," Ron growled darkly.

"Don't you think defeating Voldemort is more important than worrying about my own personal health?" Hermione snapped. "Besides, aside from the locket and Voldemort's snake, Nagini, this is the last Horcrux. You really don't need my help any more."

"Hermione, you know that's not true!" Harry said softly while Ron gaped wordlessly.

"I know," Hermione sighed. "But I'm the only one who knows this incantation so you really don't have a say in the matter."

She marched forward and resolutely stuck her wand into the vortex. Harry and Ron watched breathlessly as she began to follow the swirl and mutter darkly under her breath.

With a loud BANG, the vortex vanished and Hermione tossed her wand to the floor just seconds before it blew up too.

"Well," she giggled nervously. "I needed a new one anyway."

Ron snarled angrily at her and snatched another book from the pile. He thrust it into the open wardrobe, pulled it out, and tossed it on the floor.

"Nothing happened!" Ron gasped. "I guess that spell really worked!"

Hermione harrumphed and snatched Ron's wand from his hand. "Accio Hufflepuff's Cup!"

She guided the golden cup to the floor and quickly cast some detection spells on it.

"Alright, Harry. I guess it's okay for you to do that love spell on it now." She handed Ron back his wand and turned to look expectantly at Harry.

"Right, love." Harry closed his eyes and began to run though his memories. His earliest memories of his parents, his memory of meeting Ron and Hermione for the first time, Sirius, Dumbledore, all the Weasleys, kissing Cho, kissing Ginny, Hagrid and Fang, Lupin, the Order; Harry thought of everyone he had ever loved or even remotely cared for and forced all of that emotion into his wand.

"Amour Detruisez," he whispered and gently traced the outline of a heart with his wand. A puff of red colored smoke covered the cup and slowly turned black as the evil in the piece of Voldemort's soul was absorbed. The smoke slowly faded from black to pink as the power of Harry's love overwhelmed the evil. (Love Destroy)

"A power that the Dark Lord knows not," Hermione quoted from the prophecy like she did every time the love spell worked.

"Um, mate?" Ron called from the doorway. "I think I figured out why the drunk man from downstairs said that this floor is haunted."

Ron swiftly backed away from the door while Harry and Hermione rushed forward to see what was wrong.

The entire hallway was hazy like it was filled with smoke except without the smoke.

"I don't think it would be safe to walk in that." Harry said worriedly as what looked like angry fireworks began to pop along the ceiling. "It's brilliant though. Voldemort let us in but won't let us leave. I was wondering why it seemed so easy to get the Horcrux."

"Um, Harry, Hermione?" Ron said softly. "I think the spell is just in the hallway." He looked down the hole in the floor made by the exploding book. "I can see the room below us just fine."

"It's our best chance," Hermione said as she rushed to put all of her books back into her bag. "Hurry, the spell is moving into the room." The doorway faded into the not-smoke and slowly vanished from sight with a cracking sound that made Hermione squeak and Ron and Harry wince. All three moved faster in their tasks.

Harry blasted a bigger hole in the floor while Ron un-shrunk their brooms. They flew down a floor and all the way out the front door at top speeds.

None of them managed to exhale until they were high up in the sky.

"Let's go back home," Ron called. "Ginny's gone to school by now so we'll have the entire place to ourselves. I don't know about you two but I need sleep."

Hermione nodded but gasped as her broom wobbled in the air.

"We need to figure out where Regulus Black is and ask him about that locket. Hopefully the Order will be able to help us because I think Dumbledore helped to hide him from Voldemort in the first place." Hermione carefully nosed her broom towards home. "Plus I need to buy a new wand before we go anywhere else."

Harry and Ron fell into protective positions behind her as they flew towards the Burrow.

They landed hours after the sun had set, bleary eyed and rubbing broom sores.

The front door flew open as they tiredly made their way up the porch and Molly Weasley rushed out.

"Oh, I'm so relieved. When I saw your hands point to mortal peril! But finally it switched to traveling and I know you can't apparate because of the chance of a Death Eater sensing the magic, but I was so worried." Molly gathered each of them into a tight hug as she babbled.

"Mum," Ron said thickly around his mother's tight arms. "Why were you looking at the clock anyway? Usually you'd be in bed by now."

Molly took a sobbing breath as she held the door open for the trio. "Ginny's gone missing but her hand on the clock is always pointing to home." She sank into a chair at the kitchen table accompanied by Ron's strangled gasp, Hermione's shocked whimper, and Harry's silence.

"What do you mean that her hand is always pointing towards home?" Hermione asked as she took Molly's shaking hands in her own.

"Minerva says that it just means that Ginny has gone somewhere that she feels at home and the clock is just reflecting that. Sometimes it will switch to traveling or to shopping so I know that Ginny's out and about. But I'm still always running downstairs to check the clock just incase it moves to mortal peril or, or something worse."

Ron quickly made his sobbing mother a strong cup of tea.

"Thank you Ron. Oh, I don't know why I'm still crying. She disappeared weeks ago on the train back to Hogwarts. Fred and George think that she met up with the guy she's been pining after for the past year and they ran away together, but that just seems so far fetched to me."

"Guy?" Harry said softly.

"Oh, Harry. You didn't realize?" Hermione said gently.

"Realize what?" Ron snapped.

"Do you remember the kitten Ginny received for her birthday?" Molly asked. At both Harry and Ron's nod she continued. "Well it was pretty obvious it was from a boy and well, a few months after you broke up with her, Harry, I think she met someone new."

"Oh," Harry said stiffly but he stood and rushed from the room showing just how upset he really was.

Molly and Hermione looked after him sadly while Ron just looked confused.

"So how long are you planning to stay this time?" Molly asked eagerly.

"Well, we need to go into Diagon Alley to buy me a new wand," Hermione said, glad to be able to change the subject. "Could you ask around the Order about Regulus Black? We think Dumbledore had a hand in hiding him from Voldemort and we think that Black has one of the Horcruxes."

"I can do that. Were you successful this time?" Molly asked with a worried look.

"Yeah," Ron said happily. "No visits to St. Mungo's this time. The only important thing we lost was Hermione's wand and that was only because it exploded."

"Exploded!" Molly screeched. "It's lucky you're alive!"

"Mum, you know we're risking our lives every day to defeat Voldemort!" Ron said sadly. "An exploding wand isn't terrible, honest."

"We're so jaded," Hermione whispered as she listened to Ron. "What have these battles done to us?"

"It's war," Molly wiped away a tear. "It makes you older, more mature before your time. I remember what happened during the first war. Arthur and I went overseas to visit family and the next thing we hear, war had broken out back home. My brothers wouldn't let us leave, not when I was pregnant with you, Ron. But when the war ended I went to check on some of my old school mates." Molly thumped her teacup down onto the table a gasped for breath through her tears.

"They all had this, this haunted look in their eyes! Like they had seen something horrible, terrible! And now every time that you three come home I see that same look growing in strength in you." She reached out and gripped Ron's hands in her own shaking ones. "I worry for you; I worry for all of my babies. Bill and Charlie are always off doing something for the Order, Percy is hiding away in the Ministry, Fred and George are openly defying the scare and depression tactics of the Death Eaters with their flamboyant shop, Ginny ran away, and now I have to watch as you three grow old before your time; yes Harry, Hermione," she added at the bushy haired girl's surprised look and the shocked thump she heard from the boy listening in through the door, "you are both my children now."

Molly shook her head and used her shoulder in a futile attempt to wipe away her tears. "I just want this war to end so that life can go back to how it was before. I just want my family back, safe and sound."

"We're almost there, Mum." Ron dropped his mother's hands and pulled her into his arms. "All we need to do is find Black to get that Horcrux from him, find Voldemort's snake, and then destroy Voldemort."

"It's not that bad," Hermione soothed. "Honest, the worst is almost over. But," Hermione wiped away a tear of her own, "thank you so much for caring for us. It really means a lot."

Harry abandoned his post hiding on the other side of the door and re-entered the kitchen. "Thank you," he whispered. "Thank you so much, Mrs. Weasley." Molly stood up and pulled all three of her children into her arms.

III

"Well, Potter, you might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack if you're after Regulus Black." Minerva McGonagall shook her head sadly and stood from behind her desk in the Headmistress' office. "You were right in assuming that Albus helped Black escape from Voldemort, but Black disappeared from his Secret Keeper over five years ago. We've been unable to locate him since."

Harry groaned and sunk lower into his chair.

"That's not entirely true…" Phineas Nigellus called down from his portrait. "There was one time a few years ago when I saw him walking around the house. He put something in the study, a necklace or a pocket watch or something, and then left. Regulus never came back and I don't believe Dumbledore ever found him."

"Harry…" Hermione said slowly. "Do you remember the locket we found that we couldn't open? Back when we were helping Mrs. Weasley clean up the place?"

"Do you think that's it?" Ron asked.

"It might be," Harry said with a groan. "Professor, can you find Mundungus Fletcher for me?"

"It will take a lot of searching," McGonagall answered carefully, "but I can put in a word at the Auror office. Why?"

"There is a chance that the locket is still at Grimmauld Place, but I caught him flitching things from the house a few years ago and there is a good chance that the locket was one of the things he stole."

McGonagall nodded. "I will have him found."

III

It was nice to be able to relax in the cooling autumn air without worrying. Harry rolled over in the grass and sighed happily. They had torn apart Grimmauld Place in a futile attempt in finding the locket and had returned, disheartened, to the Burrow.

It had been very hard for Harry to return to Sirius's home. The memories had frozen him in place for a while before he was able to come back to himself and help with the searching. It was even more difficult than being in the Headmaster's office and seeing that all of Dumbledore's belongings had been exchanged with McGonagall's.

But now he could forget all that pain and just be. Harry let the soft grass sooth him and the gentle wind fly away with his sadness. Was this what it felt like to not feel? It was wonderful…

Days could pass in this serene solitude and Harry would never notice.

Ron thumped onto the ground beside Harry and gazed up at the clouds.

"It's nice out here," he said softly.

"Yeah," Harry answered in a slow voice. "I wish I never had to leave. I don't want to go back out there and fight, I don't want to go back into that pain."

"None of us do, Harry," Ron said sadly. "I think the only people who do are the ones who started this idiot war in the first place."

"But we have to, don't we," Harry sighed and rolled over to look at his friend.

Ron nodded. "Yes we do." He paused for a second to take a long look at the clouds before continuing. "Fred and George found Mundungus. He sold the locket down Knockturn Alley. Hermione has the exact address."

They helped each other to stand and both took a deep breath of the clean air before squaring their shoulders and forcefully marching back into the house and into the war.

"It's this way, I think…" Hermione shrugged even though it was hard to see her through the bulky coat and hood she wore to obscure her features from the denizens of Knockturn Alley.

They turned a corner and found a side alley filled with disreputable shops and grime and Ginny Weasley froze in place in the middle of the street.

Ron rushed forward and Ginny's hand dove into her pocket. Ron stopped short but started moving again when he saw that instead of pulling out a wand, she pulled out two lockets.

"Ginny," Ron breathed. "What are you doing here? It's dangerous! Mum's been going spare since you disappeared!"

"I was buying you idiots this." She tossed Harry the gold locket and popped open the face of the silver one.

Harry shoved the gold locket into his coat and focused on Ginny. "Why did you leave, Ginny?" he said softly.

"I heard along the grapevine that you lot were looking for a locket with a snake on it that was pawned by Mundungus Fletcher," she said, ignoring Harry's question with ease. "You lot should be more careful with who tell your information to. I passed Rookwood in the shop looking for the locket too."

Her finger hovered over the silver locket in her hand and Harry rushed to stop her. He had a feeling that she would again be beyond their reach in seconds if he didn't hurry.

"Ginny, please! Tell us what happened!"

She paused for a second and cocked her head to the side as if listening to a voice none of them could hear.

"I went somewhere I could be happy," she answered softly before apparently nodding to herself. She pocketed her locket and walked off down the street away from the trio. They watched, openmouthed, as she entered another shop and disappeared from sight.

Ron immediately moved to follow her but Hermione quickly shot out her hand to stop him. "Ron, she said that she's happy. Leave her be. Besides," Hermione glanced nervously around, "she said there was at least one Death Eater around and I would guess that were there's one, there's another dozen. Let go to 'Wheezes and have a look at the locket she gave you, Harry."

Hermione forcibly turned both boys away from the direction Ginny had gone in and propelled them down the street and towards Diagon Alley.

Five minutes later found them pushing through the doors of the always-crowded Weasleys Wizard Wheezes. They gave Fred a wave as they pushed past the counter where he was working and went into the back room.

George looked up from a bubbling potion he was hovering over and gave them a smile. "Don't touch anything," he warned. "Most of the stuff back here explodes if it's not handled right."

Harry found an unoccupied space on the table and dropped the locket into it.

"Is that it, Harry?" Ron asked as he and Hermione hovered over his shoulders to get a look. George abandoned his potion to come over and take a look too.

Harry flipped the locket onto its front and nodded when he saw the engraving of a serpentine S. "Yeah, it's the locket I saw Merope Gaunt wearing in the memory Dumbledore showed me."

Harry pulled out his wand and said, "Amour Detruisez," as he traced a heart in the air.

The familiar red smoke billowed out and covered the locket. George gasped as the smoke faded to black and then went back to light pink color moments later. Once the smoke dispersed Harry bent down and picked up the locket. It popped open to reveal a picture of two grimy people, Merope and Morfin, Harry recalled from the memory.

"It never opened before," Ron said in a surprised voice.

"That means the spell has worn off," Hermione answered. "That just leaves Nagini and Voldemort himself."

"Hey, George," Ron said suddenly. "I know that you and Fred go into Knockturn Alley once in a while. Have you ever run across Ginny down there?"

George looked uncomfortable for a long moment and walked over to his potion. He stirred it three times anti-clockwise and turned down the heat before he answered.

"Listen, Ron, Ginny's safe. Just leave her alone."

"You know what happened to her!" Hermione gasped.

George wouldn't look any of them in the eye. "We've known for a while what's been happening with her. She came to us in her fifth year at school for help with a project she was working on with a boy she liked. She came to us again to tell us that she would be disappearing a few months ago. They knew that we had the best chance of figuring out where she had gone so she came to warn us away from searching. Every once in a while she'll contact us and we'll go out to lunch."

"But!" Ron began when George stopped talking but was stopped when the older boy held up a hand.

"Listen, Ron. I won't tell you anything else. You don't have the right to know what Ginny is doing."

"I'm her brother, just like you!" Ron snapped. "Of course I have the right."

"You haven't earned His trust and you never will," George answered with a snarl.

"Him?" Hermione asked.

George shook his head. "Ginny's fiancé. Now, I won't tell you anything else so please leave."

"Fiancé!" Ron squawked. He stood up so fast that his chair toppled over. Luckily the chair missed anything explosive when it fell but George rushed over to check anyway.

"Ron, you really need to leave now," George said darkly. "I shouldn't have told you anything in the first place." He gripped Ron's shoulders and forced his brother to the door. "And don't go telling Mum either," George added as he motioned for Harry and Hermione to follow him out. "Or I'll feed you a potion that will make your bollocks fall off."

The trio left and George walked back to his potion.

"Sorry mate," George said to the blonde man who was sprinkling lacewings into the potion.

"It's alright," Draco answered. "You didn't tell them anything important and knowing that Ginevra's my fiancé might make Potter back off. I didn't like where his thoughts were heading." He growled but his hand was steady as he squeezed the juices out of a newt's eyeball into the green potion. It slowly faded to yellow and Draco took up a ladle and began dropping dollops of potion into Canary Cream molds.

"I haven't been able to find any information that would help you," George said with a sigh. "I've asked around, discreetly mind you, and haven't found a thing."

"I didn't expect you to," Draco answered with a shrug. "There hasn't been any research done on mind control before so there really wasn't anything for you to find. I did bring you that ingredient you've been looking for." He motioned to a bag on the table. "It should help balance the chemical equation and make everything less unstable and less explosive."

"Thanks mate!" George smiled happily and went to investigate the contents of the bag. "Oh, the trio saw Ginny in Knockturn Alley just now."

Draco sighed. "I know. I read their minds before I came here. Did you know that none of them have even the slightest training in Occlumency? I know that Snape was forced to give Potter lessons, but I have to say that they were a complete failure. The stupid scar-head didn't even notice me poking around! How can you expect him to defeat Voldemort if he doesn't protect his mind? Bloody idiot!"

George sighed. "He's got a pretty nifty love spell."

"Yeah," Draco answered with a nod of his head. "That spell has a good chance of working; I've analyzed it myself; but only if that idiot can survive long enough to cast it."

"Then I guess we'll just have to make sure that he does survive," George shrugged.

"Ginny and I will be there and by then we should have the rudiments of body control perfected." Draco looked up suddenly and smiled. "I have to go pick up Ginny right now. Goodbye."

Draco disappeared with one of his one-shot Portkeys and George returned to putting the Canary Creams out to solidify.

III

Harry ducked another spell and quickly glanced around to find Hermione and Ron. Both were fighting and winning so Harry focused back on his own hide.

Neither side had premeditated the start of this battle; rather it was more of an accident that they were battling at all.

Ron had decided to go back to the twin's shop to interrogate Fred and Harry and Hermione had followed. They Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron and had just walked though the brick wall when they had seen Rookwood, Macnair, and a cloaked man who later turned out to be the missing Lucius Malfoy, exiting Gringotts.

Spells had been fired, reinforcements were called in, and Diagon Alley became the site for the final battle. Harry had felt Voldemort Apparate in a few minutes ago and was working his way towards the Dark Lord just as Voldemort was blasting away people who stood in his way to get to Harry.

After long minutes and numerous battles they met.

"Well, well, Potter. We finally meet again," Voldemort hissed over the sounds of the smaller battles being waged around them. His high, cold voice raised goose bumps on Harry's arms and his heart beat faster as fear began to set in.

He fought past the fear and slung his backpack off his back.

"Voldemort," Harry said genially. "I want to give you back some things that belong to you." He unzipped the bag and upturned it over the ground. Five ex-Horcruxes fell onto the ground. Hufflepuff's cup rolled until it was stopped at Voldemort's feet.

"Oh, Potter, what have you done?" Voldemort snarled in what was supposed to be a nonchalant hiss but Harry could see the beginnings of real fear floating in his red eyes.

"Let me show you." Harry pulled out his wand and pointed it at the snake circling Voldemort's feet. "Amour Detruisez."

Nagini hissed one last time and stopped moving as the smoke faded back to pink.

Voldemort didn't hesitate. "Avada Kedavra!"

Harry dove to the ground and the spell passed over his head. "Stupefy! Impedimenta!" He shot back some spells, hoping to weaken Voldemort enough to be able to use the love spell. Voldemort blocked both.

Around them battles ground to a stop as Death Eaters, Order Members and Aurors turned to watch the deciding fight of their existence. If Voldemort won the entire world would be destroyed. If Harry won things could finally go back to normal.

The next spell came from Voldemort but his arm suddenly jerked to the side a half second before the spell shot out of his wand. The curse flew way to Harry's right. He didn't even need to think about dodging it.

Harry felt his arm rise of it's own accord and he heard someone yell, "Stupefy!", in his mind.

Harry quickly echoed the voice and watched as the stunning spell hit Voldemort in the chest.

Before Harry could do anything, Voldemort fought off the effects of the spell and returned fire. Again his arm was shoved to the side by an unknown force.

"How are you doing this, Potter?" Voldemort snarled. Suddenly he forced himself into Harry's mind. 'How Potter?' Harry heard in his mind as Voldemort poked around.

"Get out!" Harry yelled though gritted teeth. He thought of his loved ones and felt Voldemort howl in pain as he fled Harry's mind.

"You're not doing that?" Voldemort hissed. "Then who is? Who dares to invade our fight?"

"And you said I would never amount to anything," a voice drawled from behind Voldemort. "That was right before you tried to kill me and I escaped."

Two cloaked figures stood in an empty space behind Voldemort.

"Malfoy!" Voldemort hissed incredulously. Harry could just make out the telltale smirk under the low hanging hood.

"The one and only," Malfoy answered back, "since I just killed my father."

He stepped forward and the other, smaller cloaked figure followed closely behind.

"Now then, Potter. It seems that you needed some help so we came to win you this war. There is an anti-Apparition ward up to prevent any Death Eaters from escaping so you don't need to worry about that." Malfoy stopped just out of easy reach of the Dark Lord and smirked. "I will hold this half-blood scum still, Potter. You do the spell."

Voldemort's wand arm whipped up but froze before it was high enough to successfully cast a spell at Malfoy.

"Hurry Potter. This bastard is stronger than he looks. I'm afraid that at my half trained state I cannot hold him for long."

Harry slowly traced a heart in the air with his wand as he thought of love and those whom he loved. Faces and memories flashed across his mind.

He almost faltered when he felt Malfoy add in two more memories of his own to the spell. The first was of a beautiful red haired girl, naked and writhing under him. The second was a memory of the same girl happily accepting his engagement ring.

Harry almost faltered when he realized that Malfoy was thinking about Ginny, but caught himself and pulled his focus back to the task at hand. He could force Malfoy to tell him about Ginny later.

"Amour Detruisez," he said slowly, making sure to annunciate every consonant and vowel.

Voldemort screamed as he was enveloped in red smoke and screamed harder as the smoke began to fade to black.

"Cast the spell again, Harry." He heard Ginny's voice coming from the other cloaked figure but chose to ignore her for more important matters. She was right; one spell would not be enough to expunge all the evil incased inside of Lord Voldemort.

"Amour Detruisez," Harry yelled and the red smoke doubled around the Dark Lord. It faded to black quickly and Harry was forced to cast three more times before the black smoke finally began to fade to pink.

When the smoke cleared Harry saw an old man lying on the ground, dead. Stripped of his dark magic Lord Voldemort had been reduced back to Tom Riddle's body.

"He would have been a handsome bloke if he hadn't ruined himself with all that dark magic," Harry heard Ginny sigh as she moved to give Draco a shoulder to lean on so he could catch his breath.

Harry was visibly wavering on his feet from casting such a taxing spell so many times but he somehow found the strength to make his way over to Malfoy and Ginny.

"What-" he began but was cut off by Malfoy.

"Remember those two images I showed you," Malfoy said harshly. "We're leaving so don't bother to look for us. Why don't you turn around," Harry gasped as he felt his legs respond to Malfoy's cue, "and go back to your friends." His legs started walking towards Ron and Harry even as he fought against whatever control Malfoy had on his mind.

For a second he felt his left leg slow but soon found it taken right back out of his control. He was stopped next to Ron and in front of Hermione, both of whom were bruised and bloody but not broken.

"Goodbye Harry." He heard Ginny speak in his mind and it suddenly came to him that maybe it was Ginny making him walk away against his will! "Tell my family that I said goodbye and that I'm happy."

By the time Harry was able to turn his head both Malfoy and Ginny vanished without the telltale pop of Apparition.

"Who was that, Harry?" Hermione asked as she pointed to where Malfoy and Ginny had just stood with the hand not clasped in Ron's.

"That was Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley," Harry said slowly and tiredly. Before Ron could interrupt Harry continued. "They've left and I doubt we'll ever see them again."

Hermione seemed to grasp some of what happened and stopped Ron with a gentle hand on his arm.

"Let them go. We have a job here. After all, we need to put every single Death Eater on trial and reform the Ministry! Plus I think I can really do some good with S.P.E.W. now that most house elves are masterless seeing as the Death Eaters who owned them before are all going to Azkaban.

"We can really do some good in the world!"

--

A.N.

The first quote is said by Horace Slughorn to Tom Riddle in a memory collected by Harry for Dumbledore in The Half Blood Prince.

The second quote is from Dumbledore to Harry in The Sorcerers Stone when Dumbledore was explaining why Quirrell couldn't touch Harry.

The third quote is again from Dumbledore to Harry in The Order of the Phoenix when Dumbledore's trying to comfort Harry.

Amour Detruisez is French for Love Destroy. Blame Babel Fish if the translation is wrong although technically I could be blamed for using an online translator…

I really hope you like how this story is going so far! Please review and tell me everything!

Mell8


	3. Chapter 3

Psukhe

Chapter Three

By Mell8

--

Draco cradled Ginny in his arms and sighed. While it was truly wonderful to be able to hold her in his arms while they slept instead of sending her off back to her parents house, other thoughts kept penetrating his mind that refused to allow him the freedom to enjoy himself.

His favorite experiment had died just this afternoon. In a way it had been good news because the death meant that Draco had successfully stopped the heart through his use of Legilimency. It showed that he was that much closer to controlling the involuntary functions of the human brain and therefore nearly able to control minds.

The bad part of today's experiment had been the fact that Ginny had been using her Legilimency on the Muggle at the same time and had been nearly as entrenched inside his mind as Draco had been when the Muggle had died. Draco had been showing her what he had discovered so far through their linked minds and had decided to press just that little bit further to impress her.

Her regretted that now. If he had continued his experimenting on his own, Ginny wouldn't have felt the Muggle die. She wouldn't have been there when his mind screamed in both pain and confusion when the heart stuttered and stopped. She wouldn't have felt the fear, nor would she have felt the brain just stop.

Draco was used to death and killing. He had been working for Voldemort for over a year before his father had been foolish enough to get himself caught and sent to Azkaban. Lucius had angered the Dark Lord so much that Voldemort had felt the need to seek reparations from the Malfoy family, hence Draco's assignment to kill Dumbledore and find a way to infiltrate the Death Eaters into the school.

Draco had killed numerous Muggles at the Dark Lord's command. He had learned the art of torturing for fun and for information early on in the game. So when he and Snape returned to the Dark Lord to announce their successful mission and Dumbledore's death, Voldemort had eagerly given Draco the task of finding, and then torturing for information, Harry Potter's biggest supporters: the Weasley family. Voldemort wanted Draco to track down every last one and to force them to tell everything they knew about where Potter was hiding and what he was up to. Draco would have done it, and eagerly because he had never gotten along with those blood traitor Weasleys, except for what Voldemort added last. He wanted the littlest Weasley girl for himself because of her strong ties with Potter.

Draco remembered laughing in the Dark Lord's face and saying something along the lines of, he wasn't foolish enough to even contemplate attacking the Weasleys and thought the Dark Lord to be an idiot to assign such a task. Draco also remembered telling Voldemort that he had had enough of working for him and was resigning from the Death Eaters. He had gone to Ginny then, even though at the time he had thought he had lost her to Potter.

Now Voldemort was dead, Harry Potter was again the savior of the Wizarding world, and Ginny was his forever. All in all, his life was looking up.

Ginny rolled over in her sleep and her tear-stained face slid into the crook of his arm. Draco grimaced at himself and gently brushed her hair off her face. He never should have risked her like that. He knew that there was a strong possibility that he could have that crucial breakthrough into the involuntary parts of the mind and never should have tried when she was in the room.

Ginny was strong, she had seen death before, but being intimately tied with the Muggle as he had died had hurt so much more. The dead Muggle would just be another unmarked grave, it was all Muggles deserved after all, but he blamed and cursed himself for her pain.

Tapping at the window woke Draco from the light doze he had fallen into and he reached over to the nightstand to grab his wand to spell the window open. A barn owl soared in and dropped a roll of parchment into Draco's waiting hands before turning and leaving the same way it came.

He unrolled the letter from the twins and put the accompanying Daily Prophet to the side.

_Read the article on page two. F&G_

Draco carefully detangled his arms from around Ginny and opened the newspaper.

_Molly Weasley speaks out! Missing Daughter Captured by Death Eater. _

Draco groaned and rubbed his eyes tiredly before continuing.

_In a desperate plea yesterday, Molly Weasley asked for aid in locating her missing daughter, Ginevra Weasley. According to Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived and the Vanquisher of You-Know-Who, the youngest Weasley was last seen in the company of known and still at large Death Eater, Draco Malfoy. It is believed that Ginevra is being held against her will under the Imperious Curse and Mrs. Weasley asks for any information about the whereabouts of her daughter to be owled to her at her home. She will also be answering questions for twenty minutes during tomorrows press conference with Harry Potter regarding his future plans for the Ministry now that he has successfully taken the late Auror Alastor Moody's position as head of the Auror Department. (Article on page one) _

The article was followed by two pictures, one a picture of Draco from his third year at Hogwarts and the other a much more recent but still dated picture of Ginny.

"Where did Mum get that picture?" Ginny rumbled in a tired but still strong voice.

Draco jumped and rolled over to look at her. She looked wan and pale but she was able to give him a small smile.

"It's got to be from my fifth or sixth year at school. And your picture's not much better." Her laugh was rough but just the fact that she was able to laugh let Draco know that she was all right.

"Well," Draco said slowly. "Do you want to make a run for it, maybe go to another country, or do you want to confront your…family?" He paused to keep control of his words and not add in an insult against her family. She noticed his restraint and gave his cheek a kiss before sliding out of bed.

"I think I should go speak to my Mum at this "press conference" of Harry's to end this silly idea of hers about you kidnapping me." She walked into the bathroom and seconds later Draco heard the shower running.

She had left the door open and with a grin, Draco went to join her.

III

"It was a spell Hermione created that forced the one thing Voldemort was weak against at him," Harry was saying with a forced smile at the huge gathering of reporters and witches and wizards, all of whom, Draco believed, were not there to hear about his appointment to the Auror department. Instead Harry was being asked questions about his role in that final battle against Voldemort.

Ginny yawned next to him and shifted her seat. She grimaced as the gravel that covered the roof they were watching from dug into her skin.

They waited another half hour as Harry was asked question after question about the battle and only one question about being an Auror. He never mentioned Draco's aid holding Voldemort still and while Harry looked uncomfortable at the omission, he never changed his story.

"His mind's in turmoil," Draco said with a sneer. "He knows that he should be telling them about our aid against Voldemort but, according to Potter's thoughts, Granger says that what we did was impossible and Ronald refuses to listen to any stories about my aid against Voldemort."

Ginny sighed. "Yeah, that sounds like something they would do. Oh! Harry's stepping off the podium. Mum's due up now."

Draco nodded and closed his eyes. "There's about five hundred people down there but I'm only going to hold the ones closest to you. You can go whenever you feel like apparating," Draco added with a smile as sweat appeared on his brow and upper lip, "just make sure you have the one-shot at hand in case I lose control."

Ginny kissed him on the cheek and readied herself for what was going to be a difficult conversation.

Distantly Draco heard Mrs. Weasley begin her sob-filled speech about what her "baby girl" looks like and how innocent and helpless Ginny is. "Oh! She could never protect herself against an evil Death Eater!" Molly cried and Draco could feel Ginny's anger right before she Disparated.

He dove into the surrounding minds and wherever he heard thoughts of pulling out a wand to subdue Ginny he took control of their bodies.

"Mum, you know that's not true," Ginny said softly into the shocked crowd. "I received top grades in school and an Outstanding on my Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL. Insinuating that I have the intelligence and strength of a three year old is demeaning".

Draco grimaced as he heard frightened thoughts about not being able to move from many of the people he was keeping control over. They were fighting to break free and if this kept up not only would Draco lose control, but also some of his captives' peers might notice the dilemma they were in.

What if…? But would that work? Draco took another precious second to think his half conceived plan through before giving it a try.

As Molly Weasley broke into wracking sobs at the sight of her daughter, Draco reached into over a hundred people's minds and made the thought that they needed to pull out their wands to stop Ginny from leaving halt. The thought would form but before the conscious could acknowledge it, Draco yanked it from the mind. Slowly people began to wonder why they were trying to grab their wands at all.

As the hostile thoughts ended so did the need to hold so many people captive. Draco let over fifty people loose from his control of their bodies. The strain he was feeling was still there, as he had to go into so many people's minds and forcibly take out the hostile thoughts about Ginny, but it was less strain than holding so many people perfectly still was.

"Mum," Ginny continued with a small smile on her pink lips, "you're being irrational. Draco would never dare hurt me. I went to him willingly, as I told Ron, Harry, and Hermione. Both Fred and George support my decision."

Draco could feel the mixed emotions in the crowd and the abject disbelief from the Weasley matriarch. Ginny's sadness at her mother's refusal to listen washed over him so he took a second to send his warm feelings to her. She sent back her smile.

"Do you have the one-shot Portkey ready?" Draco asked in her mind as he felt the trio ready their wands. She flashed her wrist so he could see the silver locket wrapped around it. She had the open face with his picture in it pressed into her palm and it would only take a shift of her hand to activate it.

"Draco hasn't participated in any Death Eater activity since his sixth year in school," Ginny added over her mother's protests that her children wouldn't lie to their mother about something as important as this.

"He's still a Death Eater, Ginny, and needs to be brought in for questioning!" Harry's voice yelled over her mother's protests and the disbelieving exclamations of the crowd.

"You know nothing about Draco!" Ginny hissed.

"That doesn't matter, Ginny," Molly said in a soft voice meant for coaxing a cat out of a tree or to keep a distraught person from making a dangerous decision. "Now, come on over here and I'll apparate us home. We can talk some more once you've had a chance to calm down in your room for a bit."

Draco flinched. The woman was a fool to be treating Ginny this way. She hated to be babied and hated it even more when it was someone close to her.

"It's okay, Ginny," Draco whispered in her mind. "Ignore her. I'm right here and I would never allow her to cart you away from me like that."

"Thanks," she said back into his mind. "I'm used to it. First she was busy harassing Bill and Charlie about their dangerous jobs, and then she was upset because Percy had separated from the family, and the twins always drove her spare. Plus, Ron was always running around with Harry. She never had the time or the extra emotions to deal with me. I think the last time she really looked at me was when I was attacked by Tom Riddle and in her mind I will always be a tortured eleven year old who will always need her to comfort me and to keep the nightmares at bay."

"So tell her that," Draco said back.

"Mum," Ginny said softly in a calm voice devoid of her temper, something that had been unheard of when she had been going through puberty. "Please, Mum, open your eyes. I'm not eleven; I'm not even sixteen! I'm nearing my eighteenth birthday and am well past the age of majority. You can't dictate my life any longer. If I say that I want to be with Draco, and I assure you that I am not under any spells or potions, then the only right you have is to gripe. You cannot force me to go to your house just as I cannot rely on you to take care of me any longer. I love you, Mum, but I'm living my own life right now and I refuse to let it be a mere extension of the little you'll allow me."

"Ginny, you're ill," Ron said as he took a slow step forwards, wand within easy reach, and hands held out pleadingly in front of his body. "Come home so we can take care of you."

"Ill!" She shrieked. "Is that what you call asserting my independence and deciding how I want to live my own life! Well you can all go to Hell! I came here to talk to you, to show you that I was okay, and you spit my kindness back at me."

She looked defiantly up at the dais that held her family with a cold sneer. "Goodbye." Her hand moved around the Portkey and she slipped from the crowd without a sound.

She landed on Draco half a second later just as he finished releasing all of the minds in his control. He held out his hand to her and together they touched a small picture of his red kitten.

When the Aurors swept the rooftop at Harry's frantic orders to search the entire block for Ginny, they couldn't find even a trace of magic. Draco and Ginny had gotten away again.

III

"So do you still want to stay in London?" Draco asked Ginny gently as they appeared back in their house in the middle of Muggle suburbia.

"I see no reason to leave. This place is so well protected and our Legilimency can tell us whenever someone is approaching the house."

"True," Draco smiled as he gathered her in a hug. "I'm sorry that didn't work out as well as you hoped. Your family…well," he shrugged.

"I expected that to happen, actually," Ginny said with a smile as she pulled away from him. She walked into the kitchen and pulled open the refrigerator with a huge smirk on her face. "Now, you get to go crack open your family vault and give a large donation to the Prophet with the stipulation that they publish our side of the story instead of Harry's and Mum's."

"And why do I deserve the pleasure of doing that?" Draco drawled as he leaned over her shoulder to pull a drink out of the fridge.

"Because while you're doing that, I'm going to be searching for another Muggle for you to experiment on. I want you to be able to perfect body manipulation and to work on thought manipulation. I felt some of what you were doing to the crowd and, Draco, it was amazing! You erased their thoughts and controlled their actions that way. Think of what you could do if you put thoughts into their minds instead of taking them away! And what if you could make it permanent? Just think of what you could force other people to do if you put a thought in their head that they believed was their own and then they acted on it!"

Draco smiled and ruffled her hair. He loved it when she oozed power lust almost as much as when she just oozed regular lust.

"This article you want written," he said as he took a seat at the kitchen table, "do you want it to obviously bash Potter or do you want it to only wax on about my wonderfulness?"

She giggled. "No, no. I want it to be my side of the story. What I said today about asserting my independence and being more than old enough to make my own decisions should be in there along with the fact that my mother tried to treat me like I was four and throwing a tantrum when she ordered me to go to my room. I want it to be believable and I want it to put real doubts in people's minds about my Mum's and Harry's frantic, fanatic, search."

"That's positively devious!" he laughed and leaned over to peck her on the lips.

"And you love me for it!"

She bounced out of her seat and grabbed her coat on her way out the door. Draco groaned and stood to go find his Gringotts key.

III

_Mother Refuses to Cut the Umbilical Cord, Daughter Suffers! _

Draco smirked down at the front-page article and patted himself on the back. The article filled the parameters Ginny had suggested perfectly. Also, one of the authors had added in a side blurb questioning whether Potter's claims that Draco was a Death Eater were actually true or just another lie made to confound the populous.

It was amazing what a little money could do—okay so it wasn't just a little money but it certainly got the job done.

Ginny bounced upstairs with a gleeful smile on her face. She dumped a young, unconscious girl at his feet. She had needle marks up both arms and her breath smelled of cigarettes and marijuana.

"I want you to fix her," Ginny said with a smirk. "Use your Occlumency and Legilimency to make her forget about her addictions and make it so she feels she can go back home and re-enter school. If you can do that and if you can make it permanent, I know that we can do the rest too!"

"It's certainly a good goal," Draco began with a worried look at the fifteen-year-old child Ginny had kidnapped off the streets of Muggle London. "But what about while she's here?" he asked suddenly. "I'm certainly not going to be supplying her with drugs, and I don't want to deal with her withdrawal on top of mucking though her mind."

"But, Draco!" Ginny gave him the look that meant she knew something he didn't know and he was about to be regretful that he didn't know.

"Think about it. Not everyone you try to influence will be as easily receptive as an Imperious-ed Muggle. Wouldn't it be better to learn under a harsher environment now so that later, when you do come up against something like this in a real situation, you can be prepared?"

Draco looked floored. How did she always manage to come up with something so brilliant? He was supposed to be the mastermind and she the lackey but more often than not he found that it was Ginny who was calling all the shots and making all the important decisions. Half the time Draco wondered if it was he who was the lackey and if Ginny just had him twirled around her finger.

But then something would happen like with the dead Muggle from the other day and she would crawl into his arms just to be held. Theirs was a relationship of alternating roles between leadership and follower. So what if sometimes he found himself on the bottom. It could be more pleasurable that way anyway. Besides, he found himself on top more often that not.

He loved Ginevra Weasley and knew that if she said that learning in the harshest possible environment was good for him, she was probably right. He pulled her pliant body to him and kissed her with all the passion in his body.

"Anything you say," he whispered with a gentle tug of her hand leading towards their bedroom. Ginny gave him her best wanton smile and brushed past him. Her shirt hit him in the face as she turned down the hall and Draco's shirt joined hers on the floor as he hurried after her.

III

The front page of the paper was an outrage! Hermione slammed her teacup onto the table and swore when the handle broke off in her hand. She didn't dare go to see Harry or Ron today, not with this disaster hanging over their heads.

"_Please, Mum, open your eyes. I'm not eleven; I'm not even sixteen! I'm nearing my eighteenth birthday and am well past the age of majority. You can't dictate my life any longer. If I say that I want to be with Draco, and I assure you that I am not under any spells or potions, then the only right you have is to gripe. You cannot force me to go to your house just as I cannot rely on you to take care of me any longer. I love you, Mum, but I'm living my own life right now and I refuse to let it be a mere extension of the little you'll allow me_," Hermione read in a scathing voice. "How dare they print something so, so biased!"

Her finger sped along Molly's initial admonition of, "_Now, come on over here and I'll apparate us home. We can talk some more once you've had a chance to calm down in your room for a bit,_" and Ron's response insinuating that Ginny was ill rather than able to take care of herself.

Then she read the words the words the author of the article had added in.

"_I've never heard of such blatant disrespect of one human being towards another. Ginevra is clearly able to live her life and to live it well. This reporter saw no signs of hunger or pain on Miss Weasley nor did I see the usual hand-me-down robes associated with the Weasley family. If anything, this reporter would say that Miss Weasley looks better cared for now that she is on her own than when she had been living with her parents." _

Hermione hissed and flung the offensive rag of a newspaper into the fire. She watched it burn with sharp satisfaction.

"How could something like this happen, Mione?" Ron asked from behind her. He had clearly just let himself into her home and when she turned to snap at him she froze. He looked so sad, so…beaten, and all Hermione could do was pull him into her arms.

"Oh, Ron," she sighed. "I don't know what to tell you. Somehow Ginny or even Malfoy found a way to influence the Prophet. We know it's untrue, but the rest of the world…" she trailed off sadly.

"And Mum and Harry are going spare," Ron whispered. "Mum won't stop crying, saying that the awful paper is taking her baby away and Harry keeps stomping around the house, breaking things and swearing. He didn't even go into work today!"

"What're we going to do, Ron?" Hermione asked sadly. If anyone believed even half of what the paper said, no one would be willing to help rescue Ginny now. They might even believe that Malfoy deserved to be acquitted for his crimes as a Death Eater!

"I don't know, Hermione. I went to the paper this morning and they politely threw me out. Said they didn't want to hear my lies and that they had an inside source that spoke truth rather than the lies Harry's been telling."

"Of course," Hermione said slowly. "Malfoy probably has more than one bank account in Gringotts. If he wanted he could access any of them without the Ministry knowing."

"We've got his vaults watched!" Ron said sharply. "If he took out any money we'd be informed immediately.

"It's possible he has another vault you don't know about, Ron," Hermione said gently. "If he paid the Prophet enough galleons they would bow down and call him Master!"

"That's horrible!" Ron gasped.

"But it's also probably true," came Harry's tired voice from her doorway. "I've just been over at the Ministry and I went through the Prophet's finances. They've just deposited half a million galleons into their vault and are being very closed lipped about who gave them so much money.

"Malfoy," Ron hissed. "When I get my hands on him!"

"So the Prophet is completely in Malfoy's pocket," Hermione mused. "Very well, we'll just have to go to the Quibbler again. Luna will definitely print the truth and hopefully the Wizarding public will see the truth of the matter."

"Like what you did when Umbridge was in control of Hogwarts?" Ron asked with a smirk.

"Exactly," Hermione smiled and stood to find her cloak.


	4. Chapter 4

Psukhe

Chapter Four

By Mell8

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"Ginny's such a wonderful girl, isn't she?" Luna Lovegood asked as she passed out teacups filled with a smoking green drink that no one except Luna dared touch. "She was just here earlier; we had a lovely lunch."

"Ginny was here?" Hermione gasped. "Was she okay? Did anything about her seem odd?" Asking Luna something about being odd wasn't the best of ideas, but it was the only lead they had.

"Ginny was so nice. She's had a subscription to the Quibbler for years, you know," Luna babbled. "It's really too bad about the nifter in her ear."

"Nifter?" Ron snorted. "Do you mean niffler?"

"No, Ron, nifter," Luna corrected with a dreamy smile. "It's a love bug. It finds people who are deeply in love and feeds off their happiness. I would hate for Ginny and Draco to lose some of their happiness because of a nifter, especially with their wedding so close."

Ron yelped.

"Wedding? They're getting married?" Hermione asked with a gasp. Were they really that serious or had Draco decided to force Ginny to take that next, final step with him? Ginny would never escape if they got married!

"Oh yes," Luna sounded pleased. "It was Ginny's idea because things are going to start changing so soon. She wanted to get married when they still had time for a honeymoon. But she seemed so sad, because she can't invite any of you lot, can she?"

"Why not?" Hermione asked as she discretely motioned for Harry and Ron to stay quiet. Luna was in a somewhat lucid and talkative mood right now. Hermione didn't want the boys to say something that would send Luna off into one of her vague tangents. It was already clear that the starry-headed girl wouldn't want to publish something for Harry. Luna's friendship was much stronger with Ginny than with Harry and she clearly believed Ginny's story over Harry's.

Newspapers were clearly a lost cause. In fact, it seemed that they were already losing so much to Malfoy. How was he always such a huge step ahead of them that he had already switched things to work for him before Hermione even thought about it?

"You'll try to capture Draco!" Luna gasped, pulling Hermione back to the conversation. "He's such a smart man and Ginny's worried that you'll take him away from her. Besides, she doesn't want her Mum to make another huge scene like that. Wasn't it nice to see the Prophet post something truthful for once?"

Ginny didn't want her family there or Draco didn't want her family there? It could be Ginny saying these things while under the Imperious Curse. Hermione didn't know what to think any longer. All she knew was that the Weasley family deserved to know the truth of the matter.

Molly Weasley was crying herself sick most nights and Hermione hadn't seen Arthur so haggard since that werewolf had attacked Bill. Only the twins seemed apathetic to Ginny's plight and the rest of the family was ostracizing them for their unwillingness to go searching for Ginny.

They made their excuses and left Luna's soon after, disheartened. Hermione had to return to work. Ron returned to the Burrow to comfort his parents.

Harry Apparated to the Leaky Cauldron. As the Head of the Auror Department he had the luxury of choosing his own hours, at least on paper. The reality was that he was swamped with work and couldn't really afford to be taking all this time off searching for Ginny.

Tom the wizened old bartender put a glass of fire whiskey in front of Harry and ambled off to go clean more mugs. The bar was empty this early in the afternoon. When work let out in a few hours Harry knew the place would be full to bursting, but right now he relished in the solitude.

The files were piling up on his desk, Ginny was still missing, and Harry really needed to think.

He had five cases of known Death Eaters who had somehow escaped the final battle that he had sent teams out to investigate. One of his teams was currently in St. Mungo's waiting for Harry to take them off the case and hand it to another team. The other four teams had reports on their findings for Harry to read and actions they needed Harry to sign off on. He was always on call for whenever they needed immediate action from their superior, like that one time the team after Rookwood had accidentally set off a trap that leveled a block of family homes in Muggle London and Harry needed to be there to facilitate fixing the mess.

Harry had reports of regular Dark Magic occurrences all across Wizarding Britain that he needed to check up on. For some reason, children found it exciting to reenact the final battle in their own back yards using sticks for wands. Accidental Dark Magic was way up because of this, and Harry had to take care of it.

Coupled with all that was the case on Draco Malfoy. The team he had sent out to capture Malfoy was the one in St. Mungo's. They were all seasoned Aurors with plenty of battles under their belts, yet they had been soundly defeated. There were spells on these Aurors that the hospital had never seen before! Plus, not a single one of the team could remember Draco Malfoy ever existing. They not only had the entire case wiped from their minds, they had an entire person wiped as well.

Harry had shown them Malfoy's picture from the Daily Prophet and to a man they all said, "He looks like a nice bloke. Who is he?"

"_Now then, Potter. It seems that you needed some help so we came to win you this war." _

Harry groaned. Malfoy's words at the battle still rang through his mind. It was why he hadn't reassigned Malfoy's case to another team just yet. Malfoy had been there fighting against Voldemort, Harry had seen him. Malfoy had somehow managed to hold Voldemort still so that Harry could cast spell after spell. Harry knew that he probably never would have defeated Voldemort without that help.

True, Malfoy wasn't a good person, but he had done a very good thing for the Wizarding World. In Harry's mind that deserved some recognition, or at least some respite.

But Malfoy had Ginny!

Or did he? Harry couldn't help wondering. Harry remembered those two images Malfoy had added to the love spell before Harry had cast it on Voldemort. Malfoy having sex with Ginny, who was clearly and loudly quite happy to be in that position, was the first memory. The second had been of Ginny accepting an engagement ring from Malfoy. Again, Ginny did not look displeased with the situation.

Plus the love those two small images infused into Harry's spell eclipsed every feeling Harry had ever felt for Ginny. Malfoy's love was the real reason Voldemort had been defeated.

It was difficult to follow Ron and Hermione about on their mission to rescue Ginny from Malfoy's evil clutches when Harry didn't really believe that Ginny was in trouble at all.

Ron had never been able to see the big picture. Back in school when Harry had became a contestant in the Triwizard Tournament, Ron had immediately thought that Harry had betrayed Ron's friendship. It never crossed Ron's mind that maybe something more was occurring. Without Hermione's intervention, Ron would never have reconciled with Harry.

Now Ron was refusing to see that maybe there was more to Malfoy and Ginny than just Death Eater and prisoner. There was clearly something more in Harry's mind, but Ron wouldn't even listen to reason.

Harry wasn't sure what was driving Hermione to such lengths, but had a sneaking suspicion hat it had to do with her relationship with Ron. Despite being unbelievably intelligent, Hermione was still a human with weaknesses. Her weakness happened to be insecurity around Ron; it always had been. Harry believed that Hermione thought that bringing Ginny back to the Weasley family would be a great way to cement herself as a future Weasley herself because no one would dare say she was anything less than devoted to the family. Harry was sure that her logic flowed slightly differently and that she was able to use it to rationalize this search for Ginny.

Harry had had enough.

He had work to do, work that didn't include running about the country searching for someone who didn't want to be found. It was time for Harry to settle down. He had a good job, an apartment, and a full vault in Gringotts. His life was exactly where he wanted it to be right now. Going off after Ginny could jeopardize everything that was working for him.

Harry set down his empty glass, threw a couple sickles on the table to pay for it, and walked out of the Leaky Cauldron. He was going to work today. He would be going to work tomorrow. Ron and Hermione could continue this fruitless search on their own.

III

"They can't get married without a marriage license signed by a high official in the Ministry," Hermione said with a laugh. "Most times the Minister just signs the papers without any problem, but I've just gone to warn him and he's promised not to sign anything with Draco Malfoy's name on it."

She stopped pacing in front of the couch where Ron was sitting with his head in his hands. It had been a week since they lost their last lead at Luna's house and disheartened was a good way to describe Ron.

Harry grimaced and left the living room to go to the kitchen. He didn't understand why neither Ron nor Hermione had gotten the message that Harry was done with it all. He hadn't gone out searching with them all week and certainly wasn't giving them any verbal help either. Still, they had decided to use his house for a base of operations and were here again to discuss Ginny's whereabouts.

"So Malfoy can't tie Ginny to him permanently then?" Ron laughed. "Alright, we have a little more time."

Harry thought about the paper Ginny had handed him this morning when she had walked into his office and then of Ron's exuberance thinking that there was no one to sign the marriage paper.

"Ginny came to see me today," Harry said, hoping for the best, rather than what he assumed would be the worst.

"What!" Ron gasped. "Why didn't you catch her?"

Harry had thought about it, at least for a few seconds. Closure to the Weasley family would certainly end this fiasco. But his Auror instincts wouldn't let him.

She looked beautiful. She looked more than beautiful, she looked happy. She was well dressed and she looked well cared for. There were absolutely no signs of neglect or torture, nor were there any signs of the Imperious Curse controlling her.

Ginny had stood in front of him calmly, letting Harry look her over and make his judgments about her well being.

He judged her healthy and hale and took the marriage license from her and signed it.

"Did you know," Harry continued, "that anyone in a high position in the Ministry can sign a marriage license to make it legal? Ginny wanted me to sign hers."

Ron crowed with laughter. "Malfoy thought sending Ginny to you would soften you enough to get you to sign it? He's more of an idiot than we thought."

"I signed it," Harry snapped.

The shocked silence let Harry know that he was in trouble.

"You what!" Ron screamed. He stood up from the couch and rushed at Harry, fists raised. "How could you?"

"I told you right after the final battle that Malfoy and Ginny were there, helping me defeat Voldemort," Harry said as he deflected Ron's fists. "Malfoy showed me something then that has always made me believe that your idea of Ginny being in trouble was wrong."

"And I told you that what Malfoy did was impossible!" Hermione snapped. "You can't control a person's body without controlling their mind first, like with the Imperious Curse. You must have been hallucinating because of all that power you were using."

"Ginny only confirmed what I saw then today," Harry continued over Hermione's rant. "She looked happy, Ron, Hermione."

"That can be faked," Ron snarled.

"Genuinely happy. And there was no sign of any coercion or Curses controlling her either. I had to take all those Auror classes specifically geared towards teaching me these things, guys. I know what I'm talking about."

"No!" Ron hissed. "You've betrayed us! You betrayed Ginny! But you can still take it back, right? It's just a signature, you can erase it."

"I couldn't. And even if I could, I wouldn't," Harry laughed. "Don't you see, you're wrong about Ginny and Malfoy? Just let them alone."

Ron Apparated out of Harry's house with a snarl at Harry. Hermione gave Harry the _look_ before following after Ron. Harry collapsed on his couch and sighed.

At least now he would have some peace and quiet.

An invitation inviting Harry to Malfoy and Ginny's wedding arrived three days later. He sent back the RSVP saying that he was coming with the same owl that delivered the letter.

Malfoy and Ginny certainly had a lot of trust that he wouldn't bring a team of Aurors with him to the wedding to arrest Malfoy. Harry had already sent one team after Malfoy and, even though the mission was a miserable failure, it should have made Malfoy a bit more reticent to include Harry in the wedding.

But Harry was resolute in wanting to go. He was going to bring a camera and was going to slap the pictures of a happy Ginny right in the Weasley's faces even if he had to write a court order to do it.

He had spent the past couple days doing a little more research on Draco Malfoy's Death Eater activities and had come up short. There had been the fiasco in his sixth year when Malfoy had gotten Death Eaters into the school and had inadvertently gotten Dumbledore killed. Yet there was the fact that Dumbledore and Snape had planned the death themselves, which took the onus off of Malfoy for the attack.

There were unsubstantiated rumors of Malfoy becoming Voldemort's chief torturer but there was no hard proof. There wasn't any proof for the rumor that Malfoy had left Voldemort's service when he had been told to go after the Weasley family, Ginny in particular, either.

All together, Harry only had about half a page of misdemeanors on Draco Malfoy. It certainly wasn't enough to arrest him, let alone convict him. Malfoy was getting off for everything.

Harry signed a void on the arrest warrant for Draco Malfoy with a note on the bottom stating that an apology should be tendered to the Malfoy family with congratulations for the upcoming wedding.

Draco Malfoy withdrew from Harry Potter's mind with a smile.

"What's up, Uncle Draco?" Leslie asked as she saw him finally open his eyes. The skid marks up her arms had healed and the crazed, drugged, look and feel was completely gone. Her brown hair was vibrant and her eyes bright with intelligence.

"Oh, I just finished solidifying something very important for the wedding," he said with a smile. "Shouldn't you be home with your mom right now?"

"Nah," Leslie grinned. "Aunt Ginny wanted my opinion for her dress and I though I'd come bug you for a sec. I'm leaving in a few minutes, don't worry." She bounced out of the room with Draco watching her carefully.

His experiments with her had been more than a success. True, initially she had been merely a difficult trial to overcome, but what he had learned while fixing her had gone well beyond just mind control.

Dopamine was the most amazing thing the human body created, in his opinion at least.

Leslie had been taking crack cocaine, a Muggle drug that was highly addictive because it increased the levels of dopamine in the brain. The excess dopamine had made her feel so good, and that want of a euphoria made her crave more.

Draco had been able to make her mind forget about the drug, but never her body. She craved that ecstasy with an unconscious abandon. By reading more Muggle literature Draco had found that Dopamine, Serotonin, and a number of other neurotransmitters influenced the feelings inside the brain. The crack had increased the feeling of pleasure by making the brain create more dopamine and the body had grown used to those levels.

Through much experimentation, Draco had found the key to those neurotransmitters and had brought her levels back to normal, thereby erasing her need for a drug to get the high.

Then he had delved into Harry Potter's mind with the same intent. Every time Potter had a feeling of doubt about the quest to find Ginny and to "save" her from Draco, Draco had lowered Potter's dopamine levels, making the Boy-Who-Lived feel much worse about the situation.

Every time Harry had thought about abandoning the search and returning to work, Draco had increased his dopamine levels, making Potter feel good about that decision.

Draco hadn't added any thoughts to Potter's mind, nor had he made Potter move in a way that was opposite what he wanted. Every decision had been Potter's and soon Draco hadn't needed to influence his dopamine any longer, Harry's brain had done that on it's own because Potter truly believed that what he was doing was right.

The mind belonged to Draco. He could read thoughts, put new thoughts in place or take them away, influence good or bad feelings, and make a body move where he wanted it to.

Draco could make someone move against their will while putting thoughts into their head that this was normal and right while increasing dopamine levels so that it felt good. He could make a person do anything and make them want to do it too.

"We just got Harry's acceptance for the wedding," Ginny said as she dropped a piece of parchment onto the table next to where Draco was sitting. "I'm guessing that means your plan worked."

"It worked," Draco grinned at her. "The entire world is in our hands, or at least it will be as soon as I figure out how to teach you to influence the neurotransmitters. There's such a disconnect between actions and feelings that it's a much more difficult step to master."

"We'll figure it out," Ginny grinned back. "Now we've got cake tasting next, and you've got to be there."

"Fine," Draco grumbled as he found his feet. "But we both know it's going to be chocolate cake with chocolate chips and raspberry filling."

Ginny giggled. "Probably, but we still have to taste it first!"

Draco took her offered hand and followed Ginny out of the room. Today he had mastered total body and mind control. Next week he would be married. After their honeymoon he would begin with world domination.


End file.
